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When a Stranger Calls
PG-13
for Mild Violence and Mild Language
1.5 of 4
Stars
Starring: Camilla Belle, Katie Cassidy, Brian Geraghty, Tessa Thompson
Directed by: Simon West
Produced by: Kenneth Lemberger (II), John Davis, Wyck Godfrey
This weekend, When a Stranger Calls, the public will probably be answering.
However after the short, dumb and dull conversation, most people will think
that they should have called the Friends Psychic Network rather than picking
up the dialer for this completely suspenseless thriller.
When a Stranger Calls is the remake of 1979 chiller with Charles Durning.
The movie has a very simple and basic plot centering around a girl who is
babysitting for the evening when all of the sudden, she gets a call from an
absolute freak who wants to kill her. She eventually realizes that the caller is
in the house with her and then she runs for her life for a few minutes. Then
the movie is over. Literally, that is the nub of the whole movie. After
repeating the same sequence over and over and over again, you start to get
a bit bored of watching her picking up the dumb phone. I was very surprised
that Simon West (Director of Con Air and the General's Daughter) would
waste his time on this movie.
When a Stranger Calls first wrong choice was choosing a lead actress
(Camilla Belle) who really cannot act. She got better as the movie went along
but she really showed no sign of real acting ability. The character of the
caller was a far cry from reality, portraying the cross between Michael Myers
and Hannibal Lector. It just looked very dumb and you were wondering why
he was walking 5 feet an hour, while chasing the babysitter around the house.
This part just lost all sense of reality the movie was trying so hard to
preserve.
I wanted so badly to like this movie and it did deliver a decent time but really
in the end, there was nothing to it. There was no scare factor at all, the script
was very week and the acting was bad. It was just a pretty bad movie all the
way around. It might make for a decent date movie because it is a PG-13
thriller movie with hardly any foul language, no sex and no filthy references.
In the end, there was not even any blood.
Warning: The movie could have easily been PG because of the lack of
reality, blood or anything offensive at all. There were a few bad words tossed
around but I do not think there was more than 3 or 4. This movie was
probably be fine for 8 and up. At least an 8 year old might be scared
because above that, its laughable.
1.5 of 4 Stars
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